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Canada ‘Dismayed’ over sentence….

North Korea’s highest court has sentenced a Canadian Christian pastor to a life term of hard labour for “crimes against the state”.

Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, was arrested in the capital Pyongyang after he travelled there in January for humanitarian work.

The Toronto-based pastor, who is of South Korean origin, was shown at a news conference earlier confessing to a plot to overthrow the government and set up a “religious state”.

North Korea bans religious activity.

The authorities periodically detain foreigners for religious or missionary activity and similar cases have seen staged public confessions from prisoners.

Handcuffs

Mr Lim was sentenced after a 90-minute trial at the North Korean Supreme Court.

He was convicted of joining the US and South Korea in an anti-North Korea human rights “racket” and fabricating and circulating false propaganda materials tarnishing the country’s image.